Bottom Line: KFC’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich falls a little short on the heat, but they know how to fry their chicken and this is a very tasty sammy.
While covering the Chicken Sandwich Wars, I have been making my way through the various fast food joints that have spicy chicken sammies on their menus, but it took me a while to get to one in particular that seems like it should be an obvious destination. KFC (that’s Kentucky Fried Chicken to us old folks) has had various chicken sandwiches on its menu over the years, but it has only recently added a spicy version as a permanent option (or at least as permanent as you get from the drive thru).
And even though KFC is ahead of Popeyes as for as sales in the United States (though just barely), it is following the lead of its competitor with a chicken sandwich that is very similar to the one that has had people flocking to the Popeyes drive thru. It is a thick piece of breaded and fried breast filet with premium pickles and a spicy sauce on a brioche-style bun.
KFC refers to the breading as “extra crispy”, but it seems to be somewhere between original recipe and the usual extra crispy with some additional seasoning to spice it up. Whatever it is, though, it definitely holds its crunch. The meat is juicy and tender throughout which is not easy to do with such a thick cut. I don’t know what was “premium” about the pickles, but they added the expected tang to the sandwich. The spicy sauce is rather sparse and adds a slight bit of heat, but not much in the way of taste.
And as for the heat level, I would put it at mild, maybe creeping up just a bit hotter by the time I got to the end. Perhaps ordering extra sauce would kick it up to Medium level. But despite the fact that the heat came up short, this is an excellent chicken sandwich just as you would expect from this venerable establishment. When comparing KFC’s chicken to Popeyes, I always give a nod to the former on taste even though the poultry from the latter delivers more of a kick.
So which one do I think is better? I put them pretty close to a tie, and it all depends on whether I am craving the heat when trying to decide which drive thru to hit. Those who need something spicy will certainly prefer Popeyes as that sandwich is right around Medium level. But KFC wins in the taste-race if you ask me. If I happen to be packing a good bottle of habanero sauce with me (what, you don’t carry hot sauce with you all the time?) then I will likely hit KFC and add my own heat.
Calorie-wise, this one comes in a little bit lower than the spicy sammy from Popeyes at 650 cals vs. 700. And it is definitely less of a gut-buster than Burger King’s Spicy Ch’King–which is competing for the same audience–as that one totals up to a whopping 920. So you can almost claim that KFC’s sandwich is the healthy option here! (Don’t try to get too far with that claim, though, considering the 35g of fat and 1260mg of sodium.)
The KFC Spicy Chicken Sandwich appears to be a permanent menu item, but as I mentioned above, it’s only permanent until it’s not anymore. It is definitely a good sandwich that is worth ordering if you happen to be swinging through the drive thru. It would certainly be nice if they would kick up that sauce or add an extra-spicy version or maybe even through on some jalapenos. But the sandwich as it is now is tasty enough to keep me coming back.
Tale of the Tape:
Calories: 650
Fat: 35g (4.5g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 34g
Carbs: 49g
Sodium: 1260mg